The Hindu : Front Page : Disabled students in distress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 07, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Disabled students in distress

Anasuya Menon

There are very few schools in the city for children with locomotor disabilities
In the hostile environs of a regular school, such children feel all alone

COIMBATORE: S. Prabhavathi has cerebral palsy. She is good in studies and is quick to learn. She can barely walk without the help of a walker. Prabhavathy was on the verge of discontinuing her studies after completing her Class V because she could not find a new school to accommodate her.

The school which she had been going to was downsizing to Class V for children with locomotor disabilities, owing to dwindling strength. “Finding a school for my daughter was a Herculean task,” says S. Gnanambal, her mother. “We visited a lot of schools, but none of them had the facilities to accommodate someone like Prabha,” she adds. When she approached a Government school, she was politely refused a seat with a piece of advice that ‘special children’ like her would not get individual attention in a regular school.

The aspirations of parents like Ms. Gnanambal who want to educate their disabled children have met a roadblock with very few schools functioning in the city that cater to the needs of children with locomotor disabilities. Though the Government has announced that students with disabilities should be integrated into normal schools, nothing has been done in the schools to accommodate such children, says JKala. R, senior project manager of Amrit Institute for Special Needs.

Hence, the children prefer to continue their education in special schools, which are very few in the city, Ms. JKala points out. While there are a handful of schools for the hearing, speech and visually impaired, there are few schools that cater exclusively to the needs children with locomotor disability.

The institute has been trying in vain to place the children in various other regular schools in the city. But, a majority of the students are unable to cope with the unfriendly environments of a regular school. “Most of the classes in regular schools are upstairs, the toilets are not disabled-friendly or are located too far away from the classrooms. Also, there are no ramps for making movement easy for those on wheelchairs. Children with certain orthopaedic disabilities can walk only up to 50 metres,” Ms. Gnanambal says.

In the hostile environs of a regular school, such children feel all alone. And, this forces them to discontinue studies. The parents have so much to say. Either make regular schools disabled-friendly or start more special schools.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page